Hopes and Dreams
by epiphanies
Summary: Extremely Post Bargaining. I wrote this before Afterlife aired. I like it. Hopefully you will! :)


Hopes and Dreams

By Emma

  
  


Disclaimer: Parts of this are from Bargaining (S6) so if you haven't seen it and are allergic to spoilers then please don't read. All belongs to Mutant Enemy (ie Tara)(sorry, you have to see it to get it!) And Joss and all those mega smart, mega important folks. 

  
  


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Spike kicked the ground roughly.

"Where in the hell did you go, Little Bit?" he yelled, frustrated.

Why had she just run off? Had the past year taught her nothing? Had she wanted Buffy to die in vain?

"Dawn!" he yelled into the night, but he knew that she must have gotten far off enough that she wouldn't be able to hear him.

He suddenly heard a noise behind him.

He turned sharply to see a woman of curly brown hair and enormous chocolate coloured eyes approaching him. She wore leather pants and a tight tank top that revealed more than Spike desired to see.

"Why are you yelling for the dawn, vampire?' she said simply, putting her hands on her hips seductively.

He stared at her, transfixed. Something seemed familiar about her. Painfully familiar.

"Why...why do you want to know?" he said slowly, and she smiled. The woman was walking slowly towards him now, swaying her hips with laughter in her eyes.

"Because," she said, a few inches from his face now, "I just do. Do you have a death wish, Mr Baddie?"

Spike backed off, shoving her away from him.

Suddenly, he felt as though his head was about to explode.

Those eyes...those eyes! He knew those eyes, had known them before knowing the darkness of the bad part of his soul....he'd known those eyes before he'd known the eyes of his first lover and siress. 

"Ces- Cecily?" he choked, and the woman got a look of utter surprise in her big, soulless eyes.

"How....why do you call me that?" she stared at him, and he blinked. 

"You're...Cecily. When did you get turned?"

She looked at him closely, and when she spoke it was with a quaver, "How do you know me?"

"You've haunted my past for ages." he said simply, and she smiled uneasily.

"How's that?"

"You changed my unlife."

"Really?" Cecily was looking more and more interested in him every moment. She started to advance on him again, when he turned around and started to yell for Dawn again.

"Hey! Why are you leaving so soon?" she called from behind him.

He grinned to himself, "Because you mean nothing to me, Cecily."

There was a silence, and then he heard her gasp.

"William?" she said finally, her voice breathy and amazed. From nearly thirty feet away, Spike turned, still smiling.

"Wow," he said lightly, "You remember me. That's different....I thought that I meant nothing to you."

Cecily stared at him incredulously.

"You were the last person I'd expect to be..."

"Yeah, yeah. How many times have I heard this story before..."

"Wait. You look a lot like this guy that I've been crushing on lately. His name is Spike...I read about him in a book and..." Cecily looked thoughtfully at him.

"You know what Spike's other nickname is?" Spike raised his scarred eyebrow and she shrugged.

"William the Bloody."

She gasped again, and he started to laugh. He heard her start to run up beside him, and he closed his eyes.

It was time. He reached inside his duster-

"It's just so great to see you again-" Cecily started, but didn't get to finish. 

She looked at Spike in horror for a second, then disappeared.

"That's one thing from my past gone." he said, satisfied.

"Dawn..." he started to call again, and for the first time, he heard a scream.

He automatically looked up, and what he saw horrified him.

The tower.

As he started to run towards it, he could see the faint outline of two people, attempting to get off of it.

"Dawn!" he yelled and sprinted towards the tower. But it was too late. It crashed to the ground.

He ran over, praying to God that Dawn wasn't on it when it had collapsed, but what he saw next made his unbeaten heart jump to his throat.

"Dawn?" he croaked as he saw Dawn, sitting across from a thin girl with thick reddish blonde hair and a nose that he would know anywhere. They seemed to be whispering to each other, and Dawn had tears in her eyes when they embraced.

Oh. My. God.

Buffy? He thought wildly, and Dawn finally saw him. She stared at him, grinning and tearful, and he fell to his knees.

Buffy. How could it be?

Once Dawn had let go of Buffy, the redhead looked over at him with a look of pain in her eyes. She stared at him a moment, then a flicker of recognition glazed over.

"Spike?" she whispered.

"Buffy?" he croaked, and the girl stared at him with wide eyes. 

He surveyed her. She was wearing the black dress that they had buried her in; her hair was it's natural colour; her hands were bleeding.

Her hands were bleeding?!

He rushed over, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Dawn said, a teary joy in her eyes.

"Are you sure," said Buffy slowly, "That this isn't~"

"No," said Dawn reassuringly, "This isn't. It's home. You're home."

"Oh."

Spike felt tears sting his eyes.

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, not in front of the slayer, not in front of little bit....don't cry don't cry don't-

Damn.

"It's....ok." said Buffy, still with the haunted look in her eyes.

Spike couldn't help it. He let out a sob, and Dawn smiled.

"Things will be all right now." she said with a light finality.

Spike could only hope. He could only hope.


End file.
